The trams crisis continues to dominate the news agenda and blogosphere in the city.

An opinion piece in the Scotsman asks whether this is the city's biggest folly since work stopped on the National Monument in 1829. The paper asks why the work on Princes Street cost £8m alone, four times the predicted amount.

Blogger Suitably Despairing says that it's increasingly hard for tram-fans like himself to continue to support the project – particularly due to the concern that the line down Leith Walk may not be built.

"I think we wouldn't lose as much face as was once feared if we had to say that we have spent too much on the trams and we will have too much to spend in the future before they would make any money for us."

Cameron Rose outlines the key details of the report which will be going before the council this Thursday – including a few positive points; that the task of relocating underground gas, water, and utility pipes is 96% complete, and that the trams vehicle construction is on schedule and on budget.

"the actual report for next week's full council meeting has only four recommendations and they are all simply "to note"... one can't but help question the political sanity of creating so much grief when absolutely nothing - absolutely nothing - is actually being decided next week??"

However, there will be a vote on the future of Edinburgh's largest conference centre. The council's blog says that plans will be voted on this Thursday for an £85m expansion of the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. The expansion programme will add two floors of underground function space and a new office building.

The rally, involving trade union, activist and student groups, will start at 6pm at the foot of the Mound, before marching to Charlotte Square.

A private school in Newington is appealling for donors to step in with £2.5m to prevent it's imminent closure. The Evening News reports that the school, St. Margaret's, went into voluntary liquidation on 10 June after making an annual loss of £250,000 for the past five years. Emergency plans for parents to become shareholders in the school have now fallen through.

Greener Leith adds fresh arguments to the debate over plans for a giant Biomass energy plant in Leith, by outlining new research into burning woodchips that suggests that it can take decades before the method results in a reduction in carbon emmissions.

Edinburgh Castle was turned pink over the weekend, as thousands of people went on a charity moon-walk around Edinburgh, to raise money for breast cancer. Women taking part wore brightly coloured bras for the 13 mile event.